The Evolution of Claire

by Tess Sharpe

  “My mom tried to stuff me with food every day,” I say. “That’s how she shows her love.”

  “I wouldn’t have minded that,” he says as the flight attendant comes to take our drink orders.

  * * *

  After a few more hours, the lights dim and I take my eye mask out of my satchel and settle my pillow against the shuttered window. As I drift off, I can hear Justin’s gentle breathing and the soft ding of the call button somewhere up the aisle. The next thing I know, someone’s tapping me gently on the shoulder.

  “Claire?”

  I push the mask off my face, smoothing my plane-head with one hand as I squint in the light.

  “We’re getting ready to land,” Justin says. His glasses are crooked on his nose, and I have the most absurd urge to reach out and straighten them. But I keep my hands to myself.

  “Thanks,” I say, pushing my stuff into my bag and running my hand through my hair one more time. Our descent is smooth, but it doesn’t matter; it makes that familiar fear rock inside me like we’re being tossed back and forth in the air. This time, Justin doesn’t grab my hand, but I almost wish he would.

  Getting off the plane, as always, is a hassle, and I lose sight of him in the hustle, but he catches up with me at the top of the escalators.

  “It was really nice talking to you,” he says. “I hope you have a good trip.”

  “You too,” I say. “Thanks for listening to me ramble on about science. It was nice. I don’t get to do that a lot.”

  “It was fun,” he says. “I like the way you think.”

  In my pocket, my phone beeps. I need to call my mom to let her know I’ve landed. I also need to find a bathroom and get a handle on my hair situation. I can already feel it getting staticky from the humidity.

  “Anyway, I should get going,” I say. “Enjoy your travels.”

  He heads down the escalator and I duck into the bathroom. My hair’s all clumpy and wilting like a cut flower on a hot day. I pull it into a quick, messy bun and spray my face with some of the aloe-rose face mist Karen insisted I buy at Sephora. To my amusement, I realize that it’s from Justin’s mom’s company, Ivy Rose.

  He was so cute. I like how he talked, not just about science, but about his mom. He looks up to her and he doesn’t care who knows it. That’s…unusual, in my experience with guys. Not that I really have a lot.

  I wash my hands and finish up in the bathroom before going to baggage claim and grabbing my suitcase. According to my itinerary, a shuttle should be waiting at the airport to take the interns to the ferry. And then we’ll be off to the island.

  This is it. My fingers are sweaty around the handle of my suitcase, and not just because of the heat. I’m nervous.

  I think about what my dad said, about showing them what I’m made of. I want to. More than anything. But will I be good enough?

  I step into the arrivals area, looking for a sign with my name on it. There. A short woman with curly hair is talking to a guy with his back to me, and she’s holding a sign that says BRIGHT MINDS INTERNS.

  Resisting the urge to break into a flat-out run, I make my way over to her. “Hi,” I say. “I’m Claire Dearing. I’m one of the interns.”

  At my name, the guy the woman had been talking to turns, and once again my eyes meet those blue ones behind the glasses.

  Justin’s mouth curls up. “I should’ve known a girl who knows so much about the Bone Wars would be going to Isla Nublar.”

  I can’t stop the answering smile blooming across my face, because my heart’s beating in that thrilling way I’ve never felt directed at another person—just at my own discoveries.

  “Looks like you and I can continue our debate, then,” I manage to say.

  “I mean, we’re gonna have what Cope and Marsh never had—real, live specimens!” he says. “Imagine what we might discover.”

  And there it is again, that thrilling, heart-thumping kind of excitement, like I’m on the edge of a cliff, about to dive into endless blue.

  Just imagine.

  “Claire Dearing,” says the woman, looking down at her list. “Perfect! Then I’ve finally got you all. I’m Jessica. I’m Ms. Jamison’s assistant. She runs Bright Minds for Mr. Masrani. You’ll be meeting her on the ferry, which is where we’re headed now. Do you have all your luggage, you two?”

  Justin and I nod.

  “Then let’s go,” she says, leading us through the lobby. “We don’t want to keep the boat waiting. As it is, we’ll be arriving after nightfall. You’ll have to wait until morning to get the full experience.”

  “How many species are on the island right now?” Justin asks as we go through the double doors onto the sidewalk, where taxis, shuttles, and cars are bustling away from and up to the curb.

  “Five different herbivore species have been integrated into their on-island habitats,” Jessica says, leading us down the sidewalk to a black van with a sleek silver logo stamped on the door.

  I can’t help but notice she makes no mention of the carnivores, even though we all know there are a few living on the island. Will we be allowed to see them? Or would it be considered too great a risk?

  “We have a herd of Triceratops,” Jessica continue. “Four Brachiosauruses, over a dozen Parasaurolophuses, six young, Ankylosaurses, and several Gallimimuses in-habitat currently, but we plan on opening next year with a total of eight species. You’re arriving at an exciting time. We’re still building parts of the park, so your intern group will be kind of stand-ins for our first guests. You get to see everything before anyone else does.”

  She grabs the handle of the van door and slides it open. Inside are a guy and a girl with the same big eyes and dark hair, though the girl’s is streaked purple and green.

  “Tanya, Eric, this is Justin Hendricks and Claire Dearing,” Jessica says. “We’re going to head to the docks now, so everyone strap in!” She gets into the passenger seat up front, and the driver starts the van and pulls into the flow of traffic.

  “Hi,” I say, flashing a smile as I buckle myself in next to the girl.

  “Oh my gosh, I’m so relieved there’s another girl,” Tanya says.

  “I told you,” Eric says, and Tanya rolls her eyes at him in a way that convinces me that they’re brother and sister. Twins, maybe?

  “That’s how it is with STEM-focused programs,” Tanya says. “You know guys are going to outnumber the girls. Can you say boys’ club?”

  I like her immediately. And to be honest, I’m also a little intimidated. This girl is cool. I’m about as far from cool as you can get.

  “Maybe because the intern director’s a woman, there’ll be more equality,” I say.

  “Good point,” Tanya says, hefting her bag from the floor onto the seat between us. It has buttons all over the straps—I see one with a woman symbol, another that says Love Is Love, and another that says FEMINIST in bold pink letters.

  Like I said: so much cooler than me.

  “Want a granola bar?” she asks, holding one out. “I hate plane food, so I packed a ton.”

  “Thanks,” I say, and she hands one to her brother and Justin.

  “So, what’s your thing?” she asks as we weave through late-afternoon rush hour.

  “My thing?” I frown.

  “Your focus. What are you into?” Tanya explains. “I’m studying botany. I cannot wait to get my hands on the plant hybrids they’ve created for the dinosaurs. Can you even imagine the calorie-rich plant sources they’ve had to come up with to satisfy the herbivores?” Her eyes shine at the prospect. “My brother over there,” she jerks her thumb at Eric, “is an AV club geek. I think his camera is attached to his face sometimes.”

  “Hey,” Eric protests, but he shrugs, like it’s true. Sure enough, I peek over the back of our seat and see that he’s got a digital camera in his lap.

 
; “I’m majoring in political science,” I say.

  “So you wanna be a lawyer?” Tanya asks.

  I shake my head. “I don’t want to stop there,” I explain. “I want to go into politics so I can advocate for animal rights.”

  “What, like, Senator Dearing, so you can help shape laws and bills?” Tanya asks, and nervousness stirs in my chest. Is she making fun of me?

  “Yeah,” I say cautiously. “Exactly like that.”

  “That’s awesome,” Tanya says, with the same enthusiasm as she has for calorie-rich plant sources, and relief uncurls in me like a cat in front of a fire. “You could be president someday.”

  I laugh at the thought. “I wish!”

  “You never know. What about you, Justin?” Tanya asks.

  “I’m studying business,” he says. “Boring, I know.”

  “Nah,” Eric says. “Jurassic World’s a business.”

  “That’s what I’m really interested in,” Justin says, his face growing animated as he warms to the subject. “This is a huge business undertaking, on top of being innovative science. It’s like business-major catnip to get to see it all while it’s still being put together.”

  “I guess it’s cool that we all get different things out of the same internship,” Eric says, his eyes still fixed on his camera.

  Tanya purses her lips. “My brother is perpetually unimpressed,” she says. “He’ll probably see a Brachiosaurus and say cool.”

  “Seeing a Brachiosaurus will be cool.”

  “All that I ask is that you try to embrace the awesome,” Tanya says, and Justin turns to shoot me an amused look at the sibling bickering, which I return. “And I don’t mean awesome as in cool. I mean awesome as in there are dinosaurs, Eric!”

  Eric laughs. His front teeth are crooked, but the effect is charming, a little roguish. “I will try to be as impressed as possible, just for you, Sis.”

  “You two are twins, aren’t you?” Justin asks.

  “I’m three minutes older,” Tanya says.

  Eric snorts. “And she’ll never let me forget it.”

  “Here we are, everyone!” Jessica says, her chipper voice breaking through the twins’ back-and-forth. We pull to a stop in front of a long series of docks, the water beyond them an endless stretch of gray-blue. As we get out of the van, we see smaller boats—fishing boats with the catch of the day—pulling into the harbor. The air smells sharp, like we’ve already left land behind, no trace of the city remaining, just salt and water and the nameless scent of the wind.

  Jessica leads us down one of the docks, water and fish splashing across the wooden boards. I breathe through my mouth and look away from the fishes’ empty eyes, because a dead fish is always a bit creepy.

  “Watch out!”

  I look up, and so does Tanya, who’s beside me. A net full of fish is suspended above us—and then it’s not. The rope breaks, I grab Tanya’s wrist and yank her backward with me, and fish rain down onto the dock, right where we were walking.

  “Ick,” Tanya says as fish jump around our ankles. She backs off, shaking her foot. “Thanks for the save, Claire.”

  Someone snickers behind us. I look over my shoulder and see a tall guy with a shock of blond hair so pale it’s almost white, his hands in his pockets and a lanyard around his neck that says Bright Minds.

  “Ms. Jamison sent me to see if you’d arrived, Jessica,” he says.

  “Oh, Wyatt!” She smiles at the boy. “It’s nice to see you. I just had a meeting with your father the other day. He’s very proud of you.”

  “Mr. Masrani keeps Dad busy,” Wyatt says with a slick grin.

  “Well, they both are working hard on the launch,” she says. “Anyway, we’re finally all here! Kids, this is Wyatt, another intern. You’ll be able to meet everyone else on the boat, so let’s go! Just…avoid the fish.” She steps gingerly over the mackerels and the rest of us skirt the squirming pile. Tanya and I shoot apologetic looks at the fisherman, who looks relieved that he didn’t brain us with a ton of fish.

  The ferry taking us to the island is a large one. I can see jeeps and crates of supplies strapped to the top deck.

  “I bet ships going near the island are monitored more closely than ever now,” I say as Justin steps onboard ahead of me.

  “It’s amazing no photos have leaked yet,” he agrees. “The first ones from the park are going to be worth a fortune.”

  “You really are all about business,” Tanya comments from behind us, and Justin grins.

  “Guilty,” he says as he heads toward the cabin, where Jessica’s gesturing us to join her.

  “That guy looks like a really handsome superhero’s naive idea of a good secret identity,” Tanya comments when he’s out of earshot.

  My ears burn, because the description perfectly captures his good-looking geekiness. Like he doesn’t really want to stand out, but he does.

  “Totally not my type,” Tanya continues. “But you should go for it, Claire.”

  I shake my head, partly for her, but also as a reminder to myself. “I think I’m gonna try to focus on the work this summer, you know?”

  “Totally get it.” Tanya peers toward the windows, where we can see the rest of the interns gathering. “This is a huge deal. I’m really nervous.”

  “It’s a lot of pressure,” I agree. “I don’t want to screw it up.”

  “Me neither,” she says. “But I’ve got your back, okay?”

  “And I’ve got yours,” I reply, happy that I’ve made a friend so fast.

  “The botanist and the politician-to-be,” Tanya says. “We’d make a weird sitcom.”

  “It’d run for five episodes, then get yanked,” I say, and her dimples flash as she smiles.

  “My brother will be wondering where I am,” she says. “You ready?”

  I take a deep breath as the ferry horn blows and we pull away from the dock. I brace my knees at the movement and then nod. “Let’s do it.”

  * * *

  There are more than a dozen people inside the ferry’s great room, where a buffet-style dinner has been set out. And I realize it isn’t just interns being ferried to the island. There are vet techs, trainers, scientists, all sorts of people who probably live and work on the island already.

  Tanya wanders off to find her brother, and I get into line behind a tall woman dressed in green khaki. She’s engaged in an animated conversation with the guy next to her about the effectiveness of playing music to dinosaur eggs.

  “But, Gregory, here’s the thing: different species seem to respond to different music,” she’s saying. “I can play classical to the Brachiosauruses, but the Triceratops prefer jazz. They get agitated otherwise. My current theory is that they interpret the music as a heartbeat—maybe a mother’s heartbeat—and that’s why the response is different.”

  “Gotta agree with the Triceratops,” says a voice in my ear. “Jazz all the way.”

  I almost drop my plate. I’m so absorbed in the conversation that I didn’t notice Justin.

  “Sorry,” he says, flipping open one of the chafing dishes and spooning rice onto his plate. “Didn’t mean to scare you.”

  “It’s okay,” I say, helping myself to some chicken from one of the dishes. It smells spicy, with grilled lemon slices layered over the pieces. I load up my plate and grab some napkins and utensils.

  “I’ll get our drinks if you promise to share some of those napkins,” Justin says, nodding to the stack in my hands.

  “Deal,” I say. He gets two lemonades and we head to a table in the corner, where Tanya and Eric are seated with a petite Latina and the boy with white-blond hair—Wyatt—who laughed at Tanya and me when the fish almost flattened us.

  “Hi, everyone,” Justin says as we sit down across from each other. He nudges the glass to me, and I hand over half of my napki
ns—a deal is a deal, after all. “I’m Justin,” he says to the girl.

  “Ronnie,” says the girl.

  “I’m Claire.”

  Ronnie holds her hand out, and I take it. She shakes it firmly. She’s got the kind of strong biceps that make me think I really should be hitting the gym.

  “I’m relieved to see more girls,” Ronnie says.

  “That’s what I said!” Tanya laughs.

  “There’s, what, twelve of us interns?” Ronnie asks. She peers over the heads of the people seated at the tables. “Did they do half and half, because that’s so cool if they did.”

  “I’m always outnumbered in my science classes,” Tanya says. “But look.” She nods toward a group of women wearing lanyards that identify them as scientists. “Masrani’s obviously hired a lot of us.”

  “I don’t know why that’s such a big deal,” mutters Wyatt. The other guys frown at him—even Eric, who teased his sister about being excited earlier.

  Ronnie fixes him with a look. “It is a big deal,” she says, slowly and precisely. No room for argument.

  I take a bite of my chicken. It’s delicious, bursting with lemon and chili.

  “Ronnie, what’s your thing?” Tanya asks, like she asked me in the van. “I’m a botanist. Claire’s gonna be president and save all the animals someday. Justin will run a hopefully not evil corporation.” Justin laughs. “And my brother’ll be winning Oscars for his documentaries. What about you?”

  “West Point,” Ronnie says, a deep note of pride in her voice. “I’ll be starting after this summer.”

  Justin lets out an impressed whistle.

  “That’s a big deal,” I say. No wonder her biceps are so enviable.

  “That’s, like, the biggest boys’ club,” Tanya says, which makes Ronnie crack a smile for the first time.

  “I come from a military family,” she says. “I’m really excited about starting in the fall. Though”—her smile widens at Tanya—“it does suck I can’t do cool stuff to my hair like yours.”